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The best and worst advice I’ve heard for marketing books is to target your audience. It’s a great catch phrase, but what on earth does it mean? It’s good advice because it’s true, but it’s less than helpful to a marketing amateur like me.

By failing to target my audience with my first book, I learned a whole lot more about it than I would have otherwise. So I’m going to do my best to come up with some good questions for you so you don’t make the same mistakes I made.

First I want you to list 10 books you think your target audience loves to read. You need to read these books and study them. No, you are not going to be exactly like these books, but you need to understand what about them your readers love.

Interesting thing you will find is that you fit into your target audience. You should be writing for yourself. The 10 books you pick should be books you already love. Even if you are not the age of the character in your book.

#1. What age should your character be?

The character in your book is the same age as your target audience OR the age your target audience perceives / fantasizes themselves. The young at heart, no matter how old, still love YA books, and there are the young who love older books.

When you put an age on your character, the reader automatically makes certain assumptions. If you break these assumptions, the wrong readers will pick up your books, and you’ll end up with bad reviews.

Age 12 to 14 – Sweet and fun, crushes and adventure. Think Fablehaven by Brandon Mull or the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter.

Age 16 – First kisses and dating. Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent or Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill or City of Bones by Cassandra Clare would be some good examples.

Age 17 – Still in high school but thinking about college, preparing to become an adult, maybe having their first sexual experience. Like Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally or The Crimson Crown by Cinda Williams Chima.

Ages 18 to 23 – College aged, no longer thinking about dating but about settling down, career focused rather than school. This age bracket usually addresses more adult topics: sex, drugs, alcohol, violence. But it is also less explicit than an adult novel. Some authors in this group include Abbi Glines and Cambria Hebert and Airicka Phoenix.

Ages 25 to 35 – This age bracket can include anything from Romance to Erotica or Contemporary to Paranormal. You will have to decide on your genre before you decide where you want to fit your book.

#2. How many POVs should your book have?

One of my early mistakes was to have too many POVs. TEARS (my 1st book) had 4 POVs other than my main character, and one of the biggest complaints was that it had too many.

I should have known better. My biggest complaint about The Wheel of Time is that there were too many POV’s. It seemed like every two-bit character in the world got a chance to tell his side of the story, and the people I WANTED to read about barely got a chance to be seen.

I have since realized that for me and the audience I want to target, two POVs are best. One for the hero and one for the heroine. Best writing groove I’ve ever had.

#3. How much sex should your book have?

People are picky. Some want explicit sexual scenes; others don’t want any. You have to be careful to handle this carefully. Too much, too little, the wrong wording, and you’ll get the wrong audience. Be sure to match the level of sexuality you have with the cover, the blurb, and the age range of your character.

If you make your character 14 and you have too much sexuality, your readers will be upset. If you make your character 18 and don’t have enough sexuality, again your readers will likely not enjoy the book.

#4. How much complexity does your book have?

This is not necessarily a good question. Harry Potter and Fablehaven are written for a younger crowd, but they have enough complexity for an older audience. On the other hand, I’ve read several books for the New Adult crowd that have only a handful of characters and a very straightforward plot.

But what you need to learn from these 10 books is how they handle the complexity. People don’t want plot holes and missing character development. If you can’t handle 100 puppet strings, then don’t write that many puppets into your story.

#5. How should you craft your blurb?

Blurbs bring out important elements that will appeal to a specific crowd. Pay attention to how the blurbs of these 10 books you are studying are crafted to show what is important to that audience.

Example: I’ve seen a lot of blurbs for Romance stories where the first paragraph is about the girl, the second paragraph is about the guy, and the third paragraph is the two of them together.

#6. What elements of a book cover draw you in?

When a reader picks up a book to read the blurb, it’s the cover that drew them in, that made them want to pick up that book. A picture speaks a thousand words, they say, and the cover of your book needs to speak two things to your reader:

(1) I want to be this person for a short while
(2) I want to experience this story

And this is what you need to keep in mind when you design your book cover to target your audience.

Hope
Richards has only ever known the life of a big city girl. When her boss gives
her an ultimatum, she decided to try out the country life during her forced
vacation. After falling in love with a mysterious old mansion on the edge of a
town that time forgot, Hope finds herself caught up in a whirlwind of someone
else's crazy love obsession, and realizes in the middle of it all how lacking
her own life is in that department. Hope is faced with a decision: return to
the mundane life she thought was her passion, or find a way to experience
something far stronger that she secretly yearns for.

YOUTUBE BOOK TRAILER:

Somewhere amidst her forty-hour
job and playtime with her three-year-old, Rachel finds time to walk the streets
of worlds only existing on manmade paper. She resides in small college town
Northwestern Nebraska with her young son, just a few blocks from a city park,
the public schools, and her parents. She enjoys socializing with adults,
sipping strawberry wine, and head banging to music that doesn't carry a beat
worth the effort of rock star hair slinging.

"The paranormal world is a much more desired
realm. There's no limit to possibilities, no comparison to probabilities, no
concept of actualities. There's no solid platform for racism, judgment, or
hierarchy. It is exactly the manifestation you choose it to be, darkness and
death included."

“I think we should get a drink
before we start Q and A.” The sound of Abigail’s voice made
Hope jump enough to bump her knees on the table. Her tone was ice cold, sending
prickly chills down Hope’s spine. She only nodded, certain that questioning how
Abigail could be so dead about something involving her own brother would be a
bad idea.

Abigail snapped her fingers in
the air two times, and the man behind the bar immediately jumped on command.
The closer he got, the stronger the pull became that Hope had felt previously.
He walked with his face downcast, most likely watching where he stepped in an
attempt to avoid tripping on anything or anyone. When he finally reached their
table, Hope was in the middle of scrambling away, utterly terrified by what she
was feeling. As soon as she caught sight of his face, her chair tipped back
with her still in it.

Hope found herself sprawled out
on a grubby wooden floor that didn’t look like it’d been swept in several days.
Her sweater had somehow tangled itself around and between her knees, making any
attempt she made to stand look very similar to a fish out of water.

Hope stopped all futile attempts
to stand independently when a very masculine hand jabbed itself in front of her
nose. With large, crossed eyes, she gasped and managed to scoot away from the
floating hand by a few measly inches. A deep, silky chuckle rolled across
languid airwaves and nearly choked Hope with its thick perfume. Hope glanced up
through half mast eyes at the blurred face hovering just beyond the floating
hand, and smiled crookedly, one eyebrow popping up a hair higher than the
other. Another bout of chuckling ensued just as something lifted Hope to her
seat.

“...Bump her head?”

“I’m...sure.”

Hope was only grasping portions
of surrounding conversation. Her head swam through an enervated, unknown
substance, causing a reaction similar to that of narcotics. She tried to shake
herself and clear her mind, but whatever it was, it insisted on clinging
tightly to every inch of her, inside and out.

“Do you mind telling me what your
nose is doing on my boyfriend?” Hope was ripped from her strange trance when a
cold, bony little hand landed abruptly on her shoulder. Her eyes flew open,
finding that her nose was indeed buried into the chest of a man.

No, not just any man. The
man. The one that was causing the pull.

“Holy shit,” she muttered to
herself, stuck in the glistening eyes of a man several years younger than
herself. She was fully aware of the stares she was earning, as well as a
perfectly annoyed Abigail behind her. She was also aware that, at that
particular moment, she didn’t have the willpower to pull away from the younger
man directly in front of her, or whatever it was that possessed her.

Slowly, Mr. Gloriously Addictive
stepped away from her snout, swallowing loudly as he did. Hope could hear
Abigail impatiently tapping her foot on the floor. The further he got
from her, the stronger she felt. Finally, Hope managed to turn a bit to look at
Abigail over her shoulder, knowing her cheeks would match the color of unfriendly
fire. She opened her mouth to apologize, and the next thing she knew, she was
falling face first toward the table. Abigail clumsily caught her full weight,
gently lowering her into the nearest chair. Hope opened a single eye, finding
the bartender entirely too close for comfort, and no doubt the cause of her
sudden lack of leg control and balance.

He was frowning at her, probably
just like Hope frowned at him. Abigail popped up out of nowhere next to him,
the man that was yet to own a name, offering Hope a crystal clear glass of
liquid heaven. She swallowed a mouthful, expecting it to slide down like the
cool, refreshing water it should’ve been. Except it wasn’t water, and it
ignited the very fires of hell in her throat and belly.

“Sorry,” Abigail winced as Hope
coughed and sputtered. “I should’ve told you it was Vodka. Your weird dizzy
spells and swooning had me convinced you were in desperate need of a hard
drink.” Hope only offered a half smile, practically glaring up at the man still
standing entirely too close to her. “Oh jeez, my manners ran away with my good
mood. This is Garrett, my boyfriend.” Garrett offered a friendly hand to shake,
but Hope just stared at it. She was more concerned about the close proximity of
that hand, and why his very presence made her feel like her skeleton had
decided to take a vacation without the rest of her.

In a heart-racing thriller
described as Falling Skies meets The Walking Dead, Jennie struggles to find a
safe place for what’s left of her family. But it seems as though there is no
place sacred, no place secure. First the aliens attacked the sun, making it
dimmer, weaker, and half what it used to be. Then they attacked the water
supply, killing one-third of Earth’s population with a bitter contaminate. And
when they unleash a new terror on humankind, the victims will wish for death,
but will not find it…When the world shatters to pieces around her, will Jennie
find the strength she needs to keep going?

Advance Praise

“Pauline
Creeden managed to mix more genres into one book than I could possibly imagine.
The overall concept, aliens attacking the earth, is straight out of Science
Fiction, but then you throw in a few zombies and post-apocalyptic fiction with
how the dead/sick humans are acting. Overall, the entire story was charged with
the adrenaline and thrills of a suspense/thriller novel, but the mood was
terrifyingly eerie like a Horror story. There was almost too much sensory
information for my primitive human brain to handle. Still, all of these genres
combined made for one unique and fascinating story. This kind of book is of the
same flavor as The Hunger Games with its originality, which I really
appreciated.” - Katelyn Hensel for Readers' Favorite

“Sanctuary
is a fast-paced Christian fantasy thriller that is original and quite
entertaining. The story revolves around Jennie and her family, Pastor Billy and
his wife, and two brothers who are polar opposites of each other. Each chapter
is presented in the point of view of Jennie, Brad or Hugh (the brothers), which
gives Pauline Creeden's Sanctuary, a multidimensional feel. The three different
story-lines merge into a full-fledged fantasy/horror novel that never sags or
lets up on the action. While there are Christian themes present in Sanctuary,
and Jennie's faith is an important part of who she is, I, a non-Christian, did
not feel I was being preached to or proselytized. I recommend Pauline Creeden's
Sanctuary -- it's well-written and a lot of fun to read.” – Jack Magnus for
Readers Favorite

In simple language, Pauline Creeden creates worlds that are
both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil

between dimensions. She
becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she
will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long.

Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.

Armored Hearts, her joint effort with author Melissa Turner
Lee, has been a #1 Bestseller in Christian Fantasy and been awarded the Crowned
Heart for Excellence by InDtale Magazine. Her debut novel, Sanctuary is
scheduled for release September 30, 2013, and has already been nominated for
two awards in YA Science Fiction.

One of Pauline's short stories has won the CCW Short Story
contest. Other short stories have been published in Fear & Trembling
Magazine, Obsidian
River and Avenir
Eclectia. An urban fantasy short will appear in The Book of Sylvari: An
Anthology of Elves from Port Yonder Press, and a vampire short will appear in
Monsters! from Diminished Media Group.

Why on earth did I write a Christian novel that has both
aliens and zombies in it?

When I was a teen/young adult and my faith was wavering at
best, there were several movies out with the likely design to shake faith even
more. End of the world movies were in their hay day. Alien invasion was another
big one. And I couldn’t help but wonder. If something like this actually
happened, would anyone be able to maintain their faith?

And now today, Zombies are on the rise.

Could aliens be reconciled with the Bible? Zombies? This is
the purpose of Sanctuary.

Because of its poetic nature, the book of Revelation lends
itself to a plethora of interpretation. I am not saying that my book is the
only true possibility, but it could be one. Could not demons be misinterpreted
as alien life forms? Might not Satan use this mirage to his advantage to
explain the bitter water or the blotting out of the sun, moon, and stars?And then there’s Revelation 9:6 - "And
in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to
die, and death shall flee from them."

Zombies?

If anyone reading this book at least opens themselves up to
the fact that yes, a biblical interpretation could resolve the problems between
faith and an apocalyptic reality, then Sanctuary has completed its purpose.

When Jennie reached the back door, she saw them. Four large dog-like
creatures with pinched faces like bulldogs and lion-like manes. They snarled,
and one of them leapt at the window on the top half of the door when it saw
her. Jennie jumped back and fell hard on the cold tile floor. The bottle of
painkiller bounced across the kitchen tiles. The creature slammed against the
window a second time, cracking it. She blinked hard. Her heart sunk, and the
hairs on her arms stood on end. A horrendous gargling howl rent the air,
causing a shiver down her spine. She held her breath and waited for the
creature to slam into the door again.

“What on earth?” she whispered to herself.

When the third attempt never came, she scrambled toward the door.
Blinking hard, she used the door knob to help herself stand. Out the cracked
window, her mother was still out of sight, but the last of the dogs headed
across the field behind her backyard.

“MOM?” Jennie called out.

The rumbling faded, and the vibrations in her chest receded with the
dogs. She pulled open the door and rushed onto their back deck. “Mom, where are
you?”

When she reached the banister, she looked over the side. Her mom lay
sprawled with one hand on the lattice. Blood gushed from Mom’s leg and her
opposite arm. Jennie’s ears rang and flooded with every beat of her heart.

Jennie didn’t know how she got to the second floor of her house, but she
found herself shaking her sleeping father. How had he slept through the
rumbling? “Outside, it’s Mom…”

Her father leapt from the bed. Mickey, her little brother, lay asleep
and undisturbed. Dad ran down the stairs and outside in his flannel pajama
bottoms and white t-shirt. He scooped Mom up to his chest and carried her
inside. Blood stained his shirt in crimson.

“Jennie, call 911!”Her father
had said it at least three times before it finally registered in her brain.

She pulled the cell phone from her pocket, but it refused to connect.
With a groan, she grabbed the cordless from the wall receiver, glad her heart
stopped pounding in her head so she could hear.

“All operators are busy at this time,” a mechanical voice deadpanned,
“Please stay on the line, and the next available operator will take your call.”

“They have me on hold, Dad. Should I hang up and try again?” She held
the phone in both hands away from her face.

“No, just stay on the line.” Her father lifted the shredded jeans from
Mom’s leg. “It looks like a shark bite. What on earth happened?”

Jennie took in the damage through tear-filled eyes. A huge chunk was
taken from her mother’s calf, exposing the fibrous tendons that covered the
bone in her leg. A bloodstain grew on the beige couch. Was she going to die?
Panic rose up.

“What happened, Jennie?”

“I...I...They looked like lions, or dogs, or something. The rumbling
shook the whole house…I tried to go outside to get Mom, but—” A sob blocked her
throat.

Her father grabbed a throw pillow and held it against the leg. Mom’s
exposed forearm laid across her chest in much the same condition as her calf.

“Grab me the duct tape.”

Jennie suddenly remembered the phone, put it back to her ear, and headed
to the hall closet. She reached for the shelf above the jackets and grabbed the
junk basket next to the toolbox.

“Please stay on the line. An operator will be with you shortly.”

She shoved the phone in the crook of her neck and fished through the
box.Half the contents dropped around
her feet. Who cares? When her fingers
wrapped around the silver duct tape, a short-lived relief sent prickles down
her arms. But the urgency gripped her chest in less than a heart beat, and she
threw the junk basket on the ground with the rest of the items.

“Hurry, Jennie!” her father called from the living room. “And turn on
the TV. Maybe they’ll have something about what’s going on.”

She handed her father the tape and turned toward the TV. The mechanical
voice on the phone came through again, followed by more easy listening.

When she clicked on the TV, the shouting and wailing began before the
picture warmed up on the screen. A sideways picture of New York City broke through, with the shaky
voice of the newscaster voicing over.

“What we are watching now – I can’t believe it – is live footage of Times Square,” the newscaster’s voice paused for a deep
breath. “We’ve lost our man on the scene and his camera man to what appears to
be some kind of new alien creature. Just a short half-hour ago, the doors to
the ship that hovered above Central Park
opened and these dog-like creatures flooded out.”

Jennie couldn’t pull
her eyes from the screen. She straightened and dropped the phone on the
hardwood. The battery popped out and skidded across the floor.

"Mom always says the angels walk among us. She forgot to tell me that
sometimes they're not all fluffy and nice."

Seventeen-year-old Caleb Wood has seen people he calls the walkers since he was
a baby. It didn't take long for him to realize something…no one can see these
strangers but him. They never stuck around or tried to touch him. And they
never said a word. That was until one day on the first day of class in his
senior year when an incredibly gorgeous girl strolls into his life…and things
are never the same again.

Soon Caleb realizes he has stepped into the middle of a growing conflict
between two ancient groups. And his ability to see the invisible ones, the
half-breeds that want to modify the human race, just might be the only hope
both he and the mysterious, but infuriating, Gia, have of making it out alive.

I live in the City of Alchemy and Medicine, North Carolina. I write about people doing
fantastical things in magical worlds. Sometimes they fall for each other and
make sacrifices for their friends. Oh, and sometimes they love music and nature
too. I live with my two sons,a guinea pig, a cat, and two dogs. Now that I have
completed my MFA in creative writing, I find that I have a little extra time to
play CLUE more often. I live in an L-shaped house dedicated to my grandmother.
It has a secret library complete with fairies, venetian plastered walls, and a
desk made out of clear blue glass.

My first full length novel was named TEARS, and I released it in the summer of 2011. However, when I wrote it, I was still discovering my style, still learning and developing as a writer. I also hadn’t yet come to understand what people wanted in a book.

So I thought I'd share with you what I learned from the experience.

Mistakes I made:

1. I thought I should be writing YA. WHY? I have no idea. I just made the assumption without really understanding myself or what I love to read.

2. Someone told me that the magical age for a YA character was 16. So I made Jadon 16 and her younger sister Lelea 14. But Lelea was really the main character, and my story was not suited for a 14-year-old audience.

3. I really should have been writing New Adult. My mind and my style suit it much better. Since I read YA, NA, and adult books, it makes sense that I should write NA as being the middle ground between YA and adult.

4. I hadn’t truly integrated myself into the online book community, so I was out of touch with all the wonderful people who love books and chat on blogs, Facebook, and Twitter about the awesome books that are coming out.

You know what? It’s okay to make mistakes. I learned so much by floundering for the first few years of my writing career. Now I not only know what to do right. I know what not to do too.

How to avoid those same mistakes:

1. To target your audience, you need to read and read and read and read and read and read and read and read!!! Then read some more. Read lots of different genres for lots of different age groups and find out what you like best.

2. Then you need to write and write and write and write and write and write and write. I suggest short stories in lots of different genres with lots of different age groups. Short stories give you a chance to try out something without giving it a long-term commitment. You’ll discover what you’re most comfortable with.

3. And while writing short stories, you’ll also learn how to craft all the elements in a story on a small scale. If you can perfect all the story elements into a short story, you’ll be really good at the longer stories. You’ll know you’re ready to write novels once your readers start saying “I WANT MORE!” rather than “THIS NEEDS WORK!”

4. Connect with all those book lovers on the internet! Read blogs. Make friends on Facebook. Join Goodreads. Best of all, become one of those BOOK LOVIN’ LADIES who can’t stop talking about the awesome books they’ve read!

Heather Van Fleet is an awesome author I recently discovered! I signed up for her book blitz, and unlike a lot of other authors, she took the time to stop by and thank me for being a part of her release day promotion. I really love it when an author does that. It makes me feel special inside, warming my heart.

In a month of daily posts promoting other authors, I’m LUCKY to get 5 authors who stop by to leave a comment on my blog. Which is really sad. So when an author bothers to do this, I always remember her.

Then I saw Heather Van Fleet again when her book Resisting Fate was mentioned on Young Adult & Teen Reviews on Facebook. On a whim, I went out and bought her book, which was on sale for only 99 cents. The book kept me up until 4 in the morning, and I’m planning on buying her next book as soon as payday rolls around.

I just totally love werewolf stories! Add a touch of romance and mystery and I am hooked! So I ate this book up like ice cream and chocolate.

By the way, I highly recommend you go get Resisting Fate while it is still on sale!

So after reading such a great book, I did what any fan would do: I stalked her and her books on the internet. I found her on Facebook and befriended her. I wrote reviews on Goodreads and Amazon and splashed it on all my Social Media accounts. And I read her other reviews on Goodreads and Amazon and was THRILLED to see so many people who loved her book Resisting Fate as much as I did. I read review after review of glowing praise, and my excitement for the next book in this series just grew.

Then I checked out her other series. But then I was totally shocked to find that on Goodreads, one of her books had a 1-star-average rating, and when I investigated deeper, I discovered it was only one person who gave such a poor rating to a book that HASN’T EVEN BEEN RELEASED YET!!!

Really? Why would anybody do that?!?!?

They didn’t bother to say WHY they gave a 1-star rating to a book they couldn’t have read yet, but I was flabbergasted.

What would make a person tear someone else down like that? Ratings should be on books, not on authors, and if someone hasn’t even read the book, they are just being cruel and vicious, trying to destroy someone’s career. I can’t imagine why someone would do that!

So I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Doing my best to be polite to this person (who shall remain nameless since they have already taken down their rating), I simply asked how they could give such a rating to an author for a book they couldn’t have even read yet.

I’m thankful to say they removed the rating. Turns out it was only a GLITCH in Goodreads. Yay! When she added the book as to-read, Goodreads added the rating for some crazy reason.

But I wanted to take the time to raise awareness of what it is like to be an indie author.

Writing is a lot of work. And money. And time. And heartache!

When I write a book, I take away time from watching TV or reading a good book or spending with my family or doing the hundreds of things I love to do. I pour my heart into it and bleed my soul into every word.

And then I invest a lot of money for a cover, swag, promotion, etc. (See my post on what it costs to publish a book.) My books are currently priced at 99 cents, which means I only get 35 cents a copy (the online bookstore takes the rest). At that price, I’d have to sell about 20K books a month to make enough money to cover the cost of producing the book, taxes and insurance, and still provide for my family.

20,000 books a month just to make enough to live on!

We depend on readers for their support. The only way we can succeed is by YOUR word-of-mouth promotion. When you read a book you love, take the time to write a review and tell your friends about it!

By supporting the author whose books you love, you ensure the author will be able to continue writing and producing books.

So please do me a favor and go out and buy RESISTING FATE and then write her a review! Because I want this writer to keep on writing.

Oh, and while you’re at it, you can buy my novella PLAYING HOOKY too or the new short story FEATHER I released earlier this month, both priced at only 99 cents. I could really use your support. LOVE YOU!

So the moral of the story: Don’t feed the bears! Feed the starving writers!

project: Breaking Angelina
series: Paranormal Investigation, #1.5
status: 50K!!! About 100% complete. We're on our last round of edits before it goes to the beta readers. I can't believe we're just weeks away from releasing this baby!

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EXCERPT:

THE SOUND OF a car honking wakes me up. I’m standing in the middle of the road—in my nightgown and bare feet, no less—and a car veers around me. Three lanes of busy traffic separate me from the sidewalk.

My heart in my throat, I dash across the road, and when a car slams on its breaks in front of me, I dive onto the sidewalk. My knee burns and aches where I land.

How did I get here?

Nothing answers me but the sound of the voices in my head cackling in delight.

Nauseated, scared, cold and hurting, I stare up at the morning sky. All this to punish me because the blue lady didn’t give them what they wanted.

They almost killed me.

“You okay, miss?” An old man helps me up.

“Yes, I just got a little lost.” In my pajamas on a busy street. Right. I need to learn to be a better liar.

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HE TURNS TO leave, his shoulders stooped, and I can see the sorrow swallowing him up, a dark cloud raging around him. His pain digs into him, boring into his skin like ticks sucking him dry....

“Wait! Don’t go.” I grab his arm, and his pai...n races through me and settles around my heart, squeezing it with vicious claws. He turns to look at me, his amber gaze drilling into me. I blink back the sudden tears. “I’m sorry. I was rude. You were kind and I brushed you away. It’s just that …”

“What?” His voice is surprisingly gentle.

“Nobody can help me. Not you. Not all the money in the world can help.”

After a fatal hit and
run accident, Ella Monroe fears that she’s lost more than her beloved parents.
Horrifying visions of a past life and a disturbing voice in her head have
psychiatric professionals convinced that she’s lost her sanity as well. But
when Kale--a dark and handsome stranger with a mysterious past--reveals the
true meaning of her visions and the tremendous power she wields through them,
Ella must come to terms with the devastating truths of her own past, while
eluding an ancient Dark Prince who seeks to control not only her future, but
all of mankind’s, by means of abilities that Ella is only beginning to
understand.

Inger
Iversen was born in 1982 to Anne and Kaii Iversen. She lives in Virginia Beach
with her overweight lap cat, Max and her tree hugging boyfriend Joshua. She
spends 90 percent of her time in Barnes and Noble and the other ten pretending
not to want to be in Barnes and Noble.

I’d had a hell of a time
convincing Jace that I needed to know the truth about myself and where I was
going, but I was getting better at convincing people. If only it had worked
with Kale. To me, two days was more than enough time to calm down, but Kale
seemed to need more time. That was one thing I didn’t have. He wasn’t answering
his phone, and he wasn’t at the mausoleum when Jace, Mia, and I went to check.
He and I both avoided answering Mia’s questions with the promise of a full
explanation once we returned to the house. I had started to get worried, but
Jace explained that Kale was tying up loose ends because I would be leaving and
he would have no reason to stay in the area. I wasn’t sure what loose
ends he had, but I hoped I would get a chance to say ‘until we meet again’
because I was never going to say goodbye to him. It was better that we split up
until Laurent was taken care of.

I had another reason to
go with Jace to the Council. I had a favor to ask. In return, I would stay with
them until Laurent was killed. Alex’s flight would be in at midnight and then
there was the thirty minute drive to the house, and I had a while to explain
everything to Mia. Jace and I had discussed a plan to get Alex’s
cooperation with helping me disappear. I hated saying it like that, but that’s
what it was. It was Alex’s job to make sure his family knew I was appreciative
of all they’d done, but I needed to leave. On the way to Mia’s from the
cemetery, Mia was surprisingly easy to talk to. Her only demand was to be there
when Alex arrived. I had told her about Kale believing that the tattooed man
was in some way related to the killer and since her parents weren’t home that
she shouldn’t stay there. Jace and I took her home to gather some things.

“I can’t believe this,
Ella. I mean, I just can’t,” Mia said for the hundredth time. “Why would someone
want to kidnap you?” She spoke without a bit of sarcasm. She was truly
confused.

“Mia, it’s a long story
that I only want to have to tell once, so you can stay with me tonight. When
Alex gets here, I will tell you both everything.”

“Fine, but who is this
guy?” She pointed at Jace.

He smiled in the
rearview mirror as we drove into Elmwood City and reintroduced himself. “I’m
Jace Vesco.”

Mia giggled and
commenced flirting. “Beautiful accent. Where are you from?”

That was a good
question. In fact, any personal question was a good one because I had never
asked him about anything other than the Council.

“I’m from Belarus, but I
have lived in so many different places that I believe my accent has evolved,”
Jace joked, and Mia giggled again.

I could see why she was
attracted to Jace. With his blue eyes and shockingly white-blond hair, he was
incredibly handsome. His features were exotic and strong, but he didn't hold an
air of mystery like Kale. At least not to me.

“My family is part
Italian,” Mia said.

I peeked in the rearview
mirror, taking in Mia’s blonde hair and pale skin, and was tempted to ask her
about it. But hair dye and makeup could drastically change anyone’s looks.
Instead of interrupting their banter, I sent Kale a text, but he didn't reply.
Meanwhile, Jace and Mia continued to flirt back and forth, and I tried not to
let my lousy mood interrupt them.

“It would be great to
visit my roots in Italy,” I heard Mia say. “I hate living in a small town.
It sucks and most of the women never escape it. If they aren’t pregnant,
they’re waitressing with nowhere to go,” she murmured. Shocked once again, I
looked in the rearview mirror. Mia’s face was hidden as she looked out of the
window. I felt bad for her, she seemed to feel trapped too, but the only
problem was that she wasn’t doing anything about it.